Child with sepsis dies after family members use "traditional treatment" by making razor cuts on body

Recently, doctors at the Internal Medicine Intensive Care Unit, National Children's Hospital, treated a 10-year-old male patient with sepsis, multiple organ failure, and drug poisoning due to his family arbitrarily giving him herbal medicine of unknown origin and taking him to traditional medicine by cutting his body with a razor blade to remove toxic blood from his body. Despite the doctors' efforts to save him, the child died.

According to Dr. Hoang Kim Lam - Department of Internal Medicine Intensive Care, National Children's Hospital, 8 days before being admitted to the hospital, the child at home had a cough, fever, cold limbs, difficulty breathing, and fatigue. The family went to the market to buy a dried medicinal plant (of unknown origin) to cut into small pieces and boil for the child to drink, and at the same time took the child to get a folk remedy by using a razor blade to make small cuts on the child's body to treat the disease.

Seeing that the child's condition did not improve, the family took him to the district hospital, then to the provincial hospital for treatment. Here, the child showed symptoms of fever, fatigue, yellow skin, yellow sclera, swelling of both eyelids, abdominal distension, liver and kidney failure, respiratory failure, and anuria. The child was then transferred to the National Children's Hospital for treatment in a state of being suffocated via an endotracheal tube.

A child with sepsis died from a family member who tried to cure him by making a cut on his body, picture 1 — Patients are treated at the National Children's Hospital.

At the National Children's Hospital, the child was diagnosed with: Sepsis, multiple organ failure. The child received intensive treatment: Respiratory support, anti-shock, broad-spectrum antibiotics, continuous blood filtration, intensive care. Despite the doctors' efforts to save the child, the child did not respond to treatment and died after 1 day in the hospital.

Associate Professor, Dr. Ta Anh Tuan - Head of the Department of Internal Medicine Intensive Care, National Children's Hospital said that the method of treating children by using a razor blade to squeeze (or cut) and take blood... to treat children is a completely unscientific method, parents or caregivers should absolutely not do this.

When performing the above method, the child's life will be in danger due to blood loss, the body's natural bacterial barrier will be damaged, allowing bacteria to directly enter the body and cause blood infection. At the same time, this will delay taking the child to the hospital and lose the golden time to save the child's life.

A child with sepsis died from a family member who treated him by making a knife cut on his body, picture 2 — Using a razor blade to squeeze or cut a child's skin is a completely unscientific method (Illustration).

Doctors recommend that before using any medicine or treatment method for children, parents need to consult a doctor. Parents should not be too impatient and listen to advice and advertisements about medicines of unknown origin or unscientific treatment methods that can cause children to have many unpredictable complications, even death.

In addition, when detecting unusual signs in children, the most important thing parents should do is quickly take their children to a specialized medical facility for timely examination and treatment.

Thu Phuong

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